Rise of Greek Civilization Essay - 641 Words

What were the factors that contributed towards the rise of civilization in Greece? How is it something special in the intellectual world? Is it true that science and philosophy were born at the same time i.e. in the 6th century B.C.? What were the reasons for the early development of civilizations (E.g. writing in 4000 B.C.) in Egypt and Mesopotamia? When were the pyramids built? How did Gods get associated with morality, as in breaching law became impiety? What was the oldest legal code of Hammurabi, the king of Babylon? What was the Babylonian contribution to the growth of man? How was the Babylonian knowledge inherited by Thales in the 6th century? Points Sudden rise of civilization in Greece Role of Egypt Babylon (both around†¦show more content†¦It is evident that this process can be carried too far, as it is, for instance, by the miser. But without going to such extremes, prudence may easily involve the loss of some of the best things in life. The worshipper of Bacchus reacts against prudence. In intoxication, physical or spiritual, he recovers an intensity of feeling which prudence had destroyed; he finds the world full of delight and beauty, and his imagination is suddenly liberated from the prison of every-day preoccupations. The Bacchic ritual produced what was called enthusiasm, which means, etymologically, having the god enter into the worshipper, who believed that he became one with the god. Much of what is greatest in human achievement involves some element of intoxication, * some sweeping away of prudence by passion. Without the Bacchic element, life would be uninteresting; with it, it is dangerous. Prudence versus passion is a conflict that runs thro ugh history. It is not a conflict in which we ought to side wholly with either party. Teaching of Orpheus – transmigration of souls according to Karma (quite similar to the Hindu Karma) The conventional tradition concerning the Greeks is that they exhibited an admirable serenity, which enabled them to contemplate passion from without, perceiving whatever beauty it exhibited, but themselves calm andShow MoreRelatedEarly Western Civilization: Molded by Conflict or Consensus842 Words   |  3 Pages The question has been posed whether early Western Civilization was molded by conflict between civilizations or by consensus between divergent civilizations. Although it can be argued that both conflict and consensus have affected the development of Western Civilization, one of these has had more of an influence than the other. As early as Ca 3000, at the dawn of civilization, there has been conflict. When the city-states of Sumer were established, warfare and competition broke out due to disagreementsRead MoreEssay on Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities 1046 Words   |  5 Pagesthe Ancient Greek world, from the early dark ages to late Antiquity, told uniquely thro ugh the history of eleven city-states or â€Å"polis†. Paul Cartledge’s Ancient Greece: A History in Eleven Cities, details the cultural traditions, trade, and politics that laid the foundation of the sprawling Aegean civilization. By examples of the successful polis Cnossos on the island of Crete, and continuing through to the rise of iconic Sparta, it is easy to trace the development of Greek civilization. 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Since then, literary historians and scholars have uncovered myths revealing an unforeseen buried past. These hallowed accounts have become the center focus of explaining the early history of the Mesopotamian civilization, and the natural phenomenon’s that have existed. In particular, the Babylonian epic of creation, Enuma Elish, which served the purpose of explainingRead MoreLibraries in the Ancient World by Lionel Casson1506 Words   |  6 Pageswritings and civilization beginning from the ancient Near East, Greece, Roma n Empire, Alexandria, and the middle ages. Not only that Casson also relates the development and archeological facts of the ancient library systems, holdings and addresses the connection between the rise in education and literacy, also the early development of the public libraries. The authors provides us various information about the ancient libraries providing their holdings, nature of publishing in the Greek and Roman worldRead MoreRise of the Roman Empire Essay examples1226 Words   |  5 Pages Rise of Rome nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The legend of Roman Empire, the strongest empire lasted more than 1,000 years in regions of minor Asia, Northern Africa, Europe including Spain, Britain, german and Gaul, which now we call France, was not created in one single day. The stories of ancient gods, heroes, and myths are part of their splendid chronicle, they are both practical facts and fantasies. Much of what we know today about the historical foundations of Rome comes to us from ancient writersRead MoreA Brief Study of Logographic Writing, Polis, Plato, and Alexander660 Words   |  3 Pagesearliest forms of writing and it first appeared in the areas of the world where evidence of civilization first was found. 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During the Early Iron ages, in the Greek Dark Ages (1100 B.C.- 800 B.C.), was the rise of the first Greek city- states.

Finally the Smoke Cleared and I Could See Free Essays

Majbritt Dietrich 24/2/13 composition starting with â€Å"Finally the smoke cleared and I could see† Finally the smoke cleared and I could see what I think I’ve been looking for, for five years†¦ I saw a small, abandoned house, which was run down and you could see dead ivy along the tattered walls. It was a little haunting but I promised myself and my sister in law I would help find my two nieces that had made a giant mistake five years ago†¦ He drove out here, into the middle of no where and just dropped his two daughters off in this house and left them to live by themselves, they were no older than 3 years old†¦ He then just left and kept on driving, I’m guessing this was all planned as he then drove into a big truck at least twice the size of his car, and killed himself. We all were devastated. We will write a custom essay sample on Finally the Smoke Cleared and I Could See or any similar topic only for you Order Now I walked into the house, not knowing what would expect me, I looked around and heard a noise. I stood completely still not even daring to breathe. I heard it again, it was like a soft whispering noise, I moved my shaking head, to see patterns developing on the wall, I was totally confused. A little girl peeped her head around the old wall and ran to attack me. I knew it was one of my nieces. The first thing I had noticed was she obviously hadn’t developed the way a normal girl her age would have. I called the police and managed to stutter the address. During the mean time I was studying the forever changing patterns on the wall. The two girls were running their hands along the wall as if the wall was a person. It was worrying me. I took pictures with my phone but when I went to look at them, the patterns that were on the wall had kind of disappeared†¦as if it were a ghost or a spirit, perhaps a soul stuck in the house? Either way it was scaring me. The police took a while; as the house was very difficult to find. It did take me five whole years to find it. But when the police finally were here they were as shocked as I was. They tried to catch the girls and put them in the back of the new police car, thankfully there was a cage splitting the front and back leather seats, as the girls were the complete opposite of calm. The girls were brought into a clinic and were examined by specialists. They were totally quiet and thought bad of my brother straight away. The girls were both kept in the clinic for a couple of weeks until an old specialist said to me there was nothing more they could do and it would be a good idea if the two girls stayed with me as they knew me. So the girls were brought to my house and process was made, both girls started to speak as the recognised things they had seen before when they had visited me. My partner Denise on the other hand was a bit afraid of them, but tried to act as motherly as possible. Both girls slept in the same room and got along fine with each other. They kept waking up at night, and spoke to the closet. It made absolutely no sense to Denise or me. One night both of us snuck up in front of their door and tried to listen to what they were saying but as soon as 1 second after we had arrived we heard a load screeching and immediately backed away and the screeching stopped. The girls ran out and screamed â€Å"you don’t know Mama, you’re not allowed to listen, she’ll get jealous! † but Denise and I were totally freaked out and slowly closed the door again and walked back to our bedroom, totally out of energy. The next morning Denise snuck into the girl’s room and wanted to look into the closet and she was so curious about what had happened last night. The same patterns that were on the walls in the house the girl were found in appeared on the walls of the girl’s bedroom here too. Whispering started again, the exact same whispering as in the house before too. One of the girls came in â€Å"don’t open it, Mama will get mad†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Denise started to get uncomfortable and walked back out and talked to her husband about it, the girl’s uncle. The girls were questioned about ‘Mama’ and said that she is a spirit that appears where ever she wants and can do what she wants. She takes care of the two girls apparently, but really what she wants is to get her child back. In 1485 she was accused of being a witch and was sentenced to death. Her baby was taken from her and was burnt. All she wants is to have her baby buried and to be with her†¦ one of the girls explained. Denise looked at her husband confused â€Å"okay†¦ girls are you sure she’s real? † the girls just looked at each other and said â€Å"don’t say she’s not, she really is real and will get mad if you talk bad about her! . The walls began to fill with the same patterns again and the screeching started too once again. â€Å"You made Mama mad! †. â€Å"Okay†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Denise began to shake. â€Å"What if we burry her baby? † the girls looked scared. The patterns began to disappear. The girls replied and said â€Å"maybe that could work†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . We walked to the woods where Mama was once burned at the stake. â€Å"Girls do you have any idea where her baby could be? † they both shook their heads, barely moving. Denise spotted an old ruin that could maybe have been the house where Mama could have lived. We got a priest and said the ceremony that would be said at a funeral. Patterns started fill the trees, and the ruin, they began to run along our bodies, it wasn’t a bad feeling; it was more of a thank you we thought. The two girls from then on were completely normal and were capable of going to a normal school nearby. They lived with Denise and their uncle and visited the graves of their father and mother, more their mother’s though as they couldn’t understand why their father had down that to them, but still knew there would have been a reason. But in the end they weren’t as damaged as the specialists had said, and it was only Mama who was in them. How to cite Finally the Smoke Cleared and I Could See, Papers

Features of Pilot Case Study-Free-Samples-Myassignementhelp.com

Question: Define the desired features of a pilot case study, as a prelude to a new case study research project? Describe why you might want only one Pilot Case, as opposed to two or more Cases? Answer: Features of Pilot case study Pilot case study helps the researcher to refine in the data collection plans by following the procedures and content of data (Yin 2013). This test is formative by nature that help the researcher to develop relevant lines of questions that need to have some conceptual clarification for the research design. On the contrary, the pretest can be treated as the occasion used for formal dress rehearsal where the data collection plan is conducted and links with the final plans. Furthermore, pilot test need to be conducted before seeking final approval from the professor (Conboy, Fitzgerald and Mathiassen 2012). It is essential to highlight a pilot case and this can be done in wide variety of ways. Pilot case may sometime represent some complicated case that is compared with the real cases that give rise to identification of specific data collection issues that is encountered in the pilot case. In that case, the pilot case study should be conducted by the researcher where substantial resource s may be devoted to this particular phase of the research study. It is important for the researcher to understand aspects like selection of pilot cases, nature of the inquiry for the pilot cases as well as nature of the reports from the pilot cases (Wieringa 2014). Selecting one pilot case as opposed to two or more pilot cases The particular case had been reviewed the preparations for data collection as well as depends upon case study whether it is single cases or multiple cases (Conboy, Fitzgerald and Mathiassen 2012). The single or multiple investigators should involve in conducting preparatory tasks. Here the case study investigators look at the desired skills that aim at planning for training activities by following the case study protocol, screening of candidate cases as well as role and purpose of a pilot case study. Therefore, each of the case studies needs to follow various steps that depend on specific inquiry. One of the desirable sequences is to understand completely into relative case study from managerial perspective. It is a known idea that entire case study team need to perform certain studies together. By doing this, the team need to work with increased efficiency as well as professional satisfaction as it ensure case study. The work on the pilot cases help in providing specific information on matters relating to field questions and about logistics of the field inquiry. To that, logistical question observes regarding technology in action for collecting information on matters relating to prevailing organizational issues. There are several variations used in the pilot study that are conducted in the pilot case studies where trade-offs are acknowledged as well as used satisfactory procedure for developing formal data collection plan (Vaivio 2008). Case study topic- HR Practices The topic for the case study is HR practices. The pilot study is used as small trial before conducting real study for checking whether research instruments work properly (Stake 2013). In addition, pilot study is one of the essential phases for conducting the researcher. Therefore, Piloting help researcher as it provide preliminary picture on matters relating to administrating instruments. It deals with administering the procedures of the data collection instruments as well as checking the reliability and validity of items of the instruments. The pilot case study highlights some values and presented to the research team and learned in other aspects such as research design as well as field procedures in the most appropriate way (Conboy, Fitzgerald and Mathiassen 2012). In case it is more than single pilot case study, the report shows the modifications that attempts to plan for next pilot case study as far as possible. Addition to that, the report involves important agenda for the given pilot case study that needs to be evaluated. In that case, the pilot cases need to be conducted in a way that the agenda used for final pilot case made use of good prototype especially for the final case study protocol. After completing the case study, the team need to conduct several studies altogether for improving the practice (Lillis 2008). Identifying specific type of evidence that is relevant to the case study Case study data collection formerly does not follow any type of formal protocol but provide specific information that need to be relevant to the case study. Case study evidence that is relevant to the case study comes from various sources. The evidence type discuss about the documentation, interviews, physical artifacts as well as direct observation and archival records. It is important for the researcher to know about a list of sources that can be quite extensive that include videotapes, films and photographs (Kratochwill et al. 2013). Documentation- This means collection of documentary information that is mostly relevant to the case study topic. The present case study topic is HR practices where types of information can take various forms and need to objectify explicit data collection plans. The documentation used should be stable that can be reviewed on repetitive basis. The documentation should have exact words that should consist of exact names, references as well as details of an event (Hancock and Algozzine 2016). Archival records- This means collection of data same like documentation and it is usually used in quantitative form. The archival records are records that takes is noted in form of computer files where the data is mentioned in an effective way (Conboy, Fitzgerald and Mathiassen 2012). Interviews-Interviews are one of the essential sources of case study information where the information is guided conversations rather than structured queries. Direct observations- Direct observation method can be used by observing the respondents and getting to cover events in real time. The information collected is contextual and covers the context based on case. Participant- observation- This source of evidence is same like direct observation method that shows interpersonal behavior as well as motives. Physical artifacts- This source of evidence shows insightful into cultural features as well as into technical operations in the most appropriate way (Conboy, Fitzgerald and Mathiassen 2012). Data Analysis Qualitative research method refers to the data analysis process in which the data has been obtained through enquiry. Social scientists use methods like interview, group discussion or observation to gain insight into behaviours, motivations, causal effect of humans. The relationship between variables is analysed through qualitative research. For the present research we have analysed the relation between HR practices and Employees. The variable HR practices have been sub-coded into Management and Organization. The variable Employee has been sub-coded into Performance and Knowledge. MAXQDA software has been used to analyse the data. Employee HR Practices EmployeePerformance EmployeeKnowledge HR PracticesManagement HR PracticesOrganization Employee 0.141 (p=0.3490) N=10 0.147 (p=0.3423) N=10 -0.321 (p=0.1828) N=10 -0.041 (p=0.4551) N=10 0.682 (p=0.0150) N=10 HR Practices 0.141 (p=0.3490) N=10 -0.341 (p=0.1676) N=10 0.014 (p=0.4843) N=10 -0.075 (p=0.4187) N=10 -0.345 (p=0.1647) N=10 EmployeePerformance 0.147 (p=0.3423) N=10 -0.341 (p=0.1676) N=10 -0.228 (p=0.2629) N=10 -0.092 (p=0.4001) N=10 0.219 (p=0.2715) N=10 EmployeeKnowledge -0.321 (p=0.1828) N=10 0.014 (p=0.4843) N=10 -0.228 (p=0.2629) N=10 0.669 (p=0.0172) N=10 0.182 (p=0.3072) N=10 HR PracticesManagement -0.041 (p=0.4551) N=10 -0.075 (p=0.4187) N=10 -0.092 (p=0.4001) N=10 0.669 (p=0.0172) N=10 0.246 (p=0.2463) N=10 HR PracticesOrganization 0.682 (p=0.0150) N=10 -0.345 (p=0.1647) N=10 0.219 (p=0.2715) N=10 0.182 (p=0.3072) N=10 0.246 (p=0.2463) N=10 The correlation analysis of the data shows that there is a moderate correlation between HR practices in an organization and Employee (r = 0.682, p-value = 0.0150). Moreover the HR practices of the management has also a moderate correlation with the employees knowledge (r = 0.669, p-value = 0.0172). Both the correlations are statistically significant. On the other hand the analysis of the data shows that there is a slight negative correlation between employees knowledge and employee (r = 0.321, p-value = 0.1828). Moreover, the data was also analyzed for relation between HR practices and Empowerment. The analysis of variance was used to analyze the data. Employee was taken as the dependent variable. HR practices in the organization were taken as the factors. Sum of squares df Mean square F p value Eta squared Between groups 21,970.100 8 2,746.262 0.78 0.71 0.86 Within groups 3,528.000 1 3,528.000 Total 25,498.100 9 Homogenity of variance Levene 0.00 p value 1.00 The analysis of the data showed that there is statistically no significant differences between HR practices and Employee in an organization, p-value = 0.71 at 0.05 level of significance. In order to analyze the internal consistency of the data Cronbachs alpha was used. Nr. Item Mean scale w/o item Std.dev. scale w/o item Corrected item scale corr. Alpha w/o item 1 EmployeePerformance 271.20 146.22 -0.023 0.486 2 EmployeeKnowledge 272.50 121.62 0.154 0.472 3 HR PracticesManagement 224.70 121.14 0.446 0.261 4 HR PracticesOrganization 248.90 107.14 0.580 0.107 5 Employee 238.70 129.81 0.163 0.436 6 HR Practices 299.00 149.52 -0.161 0.486 The Cronbachs alpha was found to be = 0.445. The analysis of the data showed that the reliability of the analysis could be increased by removing the variable HR practices. Conclusion For the present assignment we discussed the principles and methods of data and evidence collection from case studies. Case studies in HR practices involving employees were analyzed to for their behavior. Qualitative data analysis process was used to analyze the case studies. In the present assignment we have studied the case study method as a research process. We also compared the case study method with other research methods. We analyzed a case study on empowerment and job satisfaction. A qualitative analysis of articles with reference to empowerment and job satisfaction was also prepared. Reference List Conboy, K., Fitzgerald, G. and Mathiassen, L., 2012. Qualitative methods research in information systems: motivations, themes, and contributions.European Journal of Information Systems,21(2), pp.113-118. Hancock, D.R. and Algozzine, B., 2016.Doing case study research: A practical guide for beginning researchers. Teachers College Press. Kratochwill, T.R., Hitchcock, J.H., Horner, R.H., Levin, J.R., Odom, S.L., Rindskopf, D.M. and Shadish, W.R., 2013. Single-case intervention research design standards.Remedial and Special Education,34(1), pp.26-38. Lillis, A., 2008. Qualitative management accounting research: rationale, pitfalls and potential: a comment on Vaivio (2008).Qualitative Research in Accounting Management,5(3), pp.239-246. Stake, R.E., 2013.Multiple case study analysis. Guilford Press. Vaivio, J., 2008. Qualitative management accounting research: rationale, pitfalls and potential.Qualitative Research in Accounting Management,5(1), pp.64-86. Wieringa, R.J., 2014. Observational Case Studies. InDesign Science Methodology for Information Systems and Software Engineering(pp. 225-245). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Yin, R.K., 2013.Case study research: Design and methods. Sage publications.

When Jesus Came to Harvard Essay Example

When Jesus Came to Harvard Essay There have been many religious and historical figures over the years and over the centuries that people often still look to for guidance in their every day lives Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi are often quoted in modern times; however, Jesus seems to be a religious figure that people still look to for strength and guidance in times of trouble. That being said, it also seems as if today’s youth are finding it difficult to think of Jesus as a modern example of someone to look to when making moral choices. In short, it is hard to ask what Jesus would do in regard to a modern moral issue such as teenage pregnancy when Jesus has been dead for many centuries.   The book When Jesus Came to Harvard attempts to bring Jesus’ moral wisdom into the 21st century.The purpose of this paper is to present a book report about When Jesus came to Harvard. I will also provide my opinions on this book. I will give an over view of about five chapters of this book. I will begin with He wa s Then, We are Now.He was Then, We are NowJesus lived a long time ago. But, many people pray to him on a daily basis; however, these same people often ask themselves how Jesus fits into today’s modern world. They also ask how does what Jesus said help to solve today’s moral issues. In fact, in When Jesus Came to Harvard, Cox said that some of his students prayed to Jesus for guidance about their moral choices; however his students found it very difficult, if not impossible to view Jesus as a living example of how to make moral choices. They were often puzzled (2004:15). In other words, Cox’s students found Jesus’ words powerful, but they couldn’t morally relate to them for their own lives.I found it interesting that Fredrick Nietzsche speculated that had Jesus lived longer he probably would have outgrown his youthful exuberance. He would have calmed down and became a different person (Cox, 2004: 16). It does seem as people get older they do get mel lower. However, there is something to be said for retaining one’s youthful exuberance throughout their life. I think it be a shame to loose youthful exuberance as people age. In fact, I tend to disagree with Fredrick Nietzsche about Jesus losing his youthful exuberance as he got older and thus becoming a different person. I think that Jesus would have retained much of his youthful exuberance as an older adult. It would have been due to Jesus’ youthful spirit that people who used his moral teachings as a guide in making moral decisions in their 20s and 30s would feel secure in looking to Jesus for moral guidance in their 50s, 60s, and beyond.World Full of StoriesThis chapter focuses on the reason it is thought that Jesus isn’t considered morally relevant today. According to Cox, the reason that Jesus isn’t considered morally relevant today is due to the fact that all of his stories are Bible narratives. In other words, Jesus’ words are only stories. Cox wonders why people use the phrase â€Å"only a story.† He wants us to realize that biblical narratives are not just churned out like ice cream or like advertising slogans Biblical narratives represent the imaginative and selective approximation of the past; the people who are retelling biblical narratives are trying to make sense of the past while living in the present and going toward the future (2004:34-35).It seems as if Cox wants people to hold narratives in higher regard that they do now. It is very important to understand that everything in the world has its own value. In addition, even if biblical narratives are seen as â€Å"only stories†, there is nothing wrong with good stories. Moreover, a good narrative might just have a bit of a moral morsel in it that can be carried with us throughout of lives.Cox goes on to claim that the problem with narratives like Jesus’ today is that the importance of storytelling has been unfairly demoted. Another proble m with narratives is that there are just too many of them in the world.   In addition, there is the problem of how to tell stories that are uniquely our own.   Relax because Cox claims that he has a three step process to stop narratives like Jesus’ from become extinct like dinosaurs. First, we must stop downing the role of the narrative and view it as an essential part of being human. Second, we must understand that the art of storytelling isn’t dead. Third, we need places where storytelling can become a priority again (2004:45).Dinner tables are one of the places where storytelling could become a priority again. This could become the case if families took the time to take the time to catch up with other each night. Coffee houses could be places where storytelling could become a priority again, especially if poetry is being read by poets in coffeehouses. The problem with storytelling becoming a priority in our lives again is that we live in a world of instant grati fication. In short, we are used to getting a bunch of information very quickly and we don’t stop to take it all in. Storytelling demands that we stop and absorb the stories that we are being told.Salt and LampsThis chapter main focus involves the relationship between religion and the rest of what happens in the world. In other words, we must see what Jesus’ religious teachings have to do with the state of the world today. We must ask ourselves if Christianity is going away; Cox claims that the answer to that question should be no. He uses the metaphors of salt and light to explain the answer to the above question. There has to be a balance between too much light and too much salt. It makes no sense to use a lamp if the sun is out and shining. Moreover, a bit of salt is necessary to season a rack of lamb or a pot of chicken soup; however too much salt will cause the food to be spit out (2004:132).   I think Cox’s message is that religion has its place in the wo rld as long as we are not bombarded with it.The CEO and the Spoiled BratThis chapter seems to illustrate that some of Jesus’ narratives were ahead of their time. Moreover, this chapter does help the reader see that Jesus’ narratives are relevant for using to make moral choices today. His parable about the crooked CEO certainty reminds me of Enron and Kenneth Lay. Also, this parable should remind us of all current crooked business schemes. Moreover, the moral lesson of once dishonest always dishonest and once honest is a lesson that is relevant today.Also, I believe that Jesus’ parable concerning the spoiled brat and the good son are very relevant to today’s moral landscape. I believe that parable lesson is that it is okay to make mistakes as long as we learn from them. In addition, this narrative seems to say that no matter what you do in life your parents will also love you. Plus, the fact that some of Jesus’ narratives don’t come with a sa tisfying ending for everyone makes him a perfect person to look to as we go down the moral road of life; according to Cox, growing up means learning to live with unsatisfying and incomplete endings (2004: 168). In short, the lesson that Jesus can and does teach us today is that moral choices have no right answers. Also, Jesus’ narratives also can teach us today that we will always be making moral choices that will both be messy and puzzling to make.Cox goes on to state that Jesus purpose in life was to shake people up with his narratives and since many of them didn’t come with a nice tidy ending; that is exactly what they did (2004: 168). Jesus’ big moral lesson is that there is often no moral to the story. It is very important that we can write the end to our own morality story ourselves. In short, we can use the lessons of Jesus’ unfinished narratives to learn to think for ourselves.Reason, Emotion, and TortureWe must now ask the question what role emot ions should play in making moral decisions. Many philosophers such as Plato and Immanuel Kant believe that emotions have no place in making moral choices. According to Cox, the reason that many philosophers believe this is because emotions cloud our thinking and stunt our ability to make sound moral judgments (2004: 237). However, emotions should be a vital part in making moral choices. In fact, having emotions play an essential role in people making moral choices is sorely needed especially in today’s fast paced world. Our modern world has given us some wonderful technological advances like computers and better transportation; however because we live in an instant message world, we don’t realize that there is pain in others to a high degree. Moreover, we are losing the ability to understand that our actions affect others deeply.   Therefore, Cox suggests that Jesus’ narratives are just what we need to bring emotions into making moral choices. The life of Jesu s was both rich with history and emotions ranging from joy to pathos and from hope to despair (2004: 244). Jesus narratives are relevant for making today’s moral choices because his story stirs both our emotions and our imagination so that we make solid moral choices. Making good and sound moral choices evolves both reason and emotion.ConclusionJesus lived a long time ago. Therefore, it makes perfect sense that while people would pray to Jesus for guidance but not see where he current enough to help them make moral choices today. However, When Jesus Came to Harvard sheds some light on Jesus’ narratives and how they are useful when wrestling with today’s difficult moral choices. I didn’t know if I would like this book due to its title; however after reading this book I would recommend it.

Circle of fire essays

Circle of fire essays After the Portuguese influence in West Africa had ended the English came to Nigeria around 1750. In the beginning they concentrated on the costal areas, especially in the Niger delta, and therefore Pidgin English started as a special costal connotation because of the urgent needs of communication between the English and the natives. The Europeans that were in contact with the local population were in the beginning mostly slave traders. As the growing demands for slaves for the transatlantic plantations spread the slavers moved inland, spreading Pidgin English to the interior of Nigeria. The European ships could be anchored for months off the Nigerian coast while slaves were collected and these places became trading posts for the trading ships. To communicate with the local people Pidgin English developed. Pidgin English uses English as the base language mixed with one or more native languages. Pidgin Portuguese was already well known and it served as a model for Pidgin English. The Europeans and the Africans developed commercial relationships, the slavers got their slaves and the Africans got some of the western technology, and they learned how to speak and write in English. In the middle of the 19th century missionaries settled in Nigeria. The missionaries wanted to teach the local people about Christianity and to do that they needed to be able to read and write. The Africans welcomed the missionaries because they could teach them English. Literacy became to the Africans a means to influence and status. The mission educators taught Standard English but the Pidgin English were already well established in Nigeria as a form of communication between the black and white, and it served as a means of identity. From the slave ships some of the slaves had been liberated and they first settled in Sierra Leone, there they developed a pidgin English to communicate with each other, because they were f ...

Percentage and Percentile

Percentage and Percentile Percentage and Percentile Percentage and Percentile By Maeve Maddox The following paragraph occurred in the denunciation of a certain person in a letter to the editor in my local paper: He has obstructed the most wholesome and necessary programs which provide for the common good, and has awarded massive financial advantages to a small percentile of the rich. This erroneous substitution of the word percentile for percentage merits attention. This is not the first time Ive encountered it. Some speakers and writers may feel that percentile sounds more high class than more ordinary percentage; the word may therefore be in danger of catching on as a genteelism, like disinterested for uninterested. A percentage is a part of a whole expressed in hundredths. It can also mean, as the letter writer intended, an indeterminate part of a number. Merriam-Webster defines percentile as the value of the statistical variable that marks the boundary between any two consecutive intervals in a distribution of 100 intervals each containing one percent of the total population called also centile The College Board site explains the use of percentiles this way: Percentiles compare your scores to those of other students who took the test. Say, for example, your critical reading score is 500. If the national percentile for a score of 500 is 47, then this means you did better than 47 percent of the national group of college-bound seniors. (NOTE: An NPR score reports comparative rank among test-takers, not necessarily mastery of a subject.) The only time to use the word percentile is when talking about statistics. For everything else, theres percentage. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:45 Synonyms for â€Å"Food†Yay, Hooray, Woo-hoo and Other AcclamationsHow Do You Pronounce "Often"?

Explain Marx's general law of capitalist accumulation and discuss it's Essay

Explain Marx's general law of capitalist accumulation and discuss it's contemporary relevance - Essay Example Though Marx does not agree with the means by which capital accumulation takes place, the identifiers that he exhibits with regards to how such a system takes place and is perpetuated is difficult to argue against regardless of the political/economic ideology that the individual may have. As a function of understanding Marx’s identification and theory of capital accumulation, this analysis will approach this topic from a historical and economic standpoint. Moreover, after seeking to define and understand the nuances of capital accumulation, as Marx describes it, the analysis will then move on to attempting to define whether or not this particular definition and understanding is applicable currently or has any contemporary relevance whatsoever. Finally, it is the hope of this author that such a discussion will not only integrate a further understanding with regards to Marx’s original intent and the means by which the Communist definition of capital accumulation was theori zed/enunciated but that this realization an understanding will seek to elaborate upon the means by which such a definition/theory continues to be relevant or is entirely irrelevant within the current era. As with so many of Karl Marx’s economic theories, it is of course first necessary to integrate with an interpretation and understanding of how Marx defined human psychology and base nature as a means of better understanding this theory and definition of capitalist accumulation. Ultimately, the writings and philosophy of Karl Marx were concentric upon an understanding that human nature as necessarily developed as a means of ensuring that humans are able to derive all of the necessary requirements for life that they may have. Not distinct from the evolutionary standpoint, Marx theory of human nature specifies that the individual, and the group for that matter, will likely seek to enrich themselves in all manners possible at all times possible (Hein, 2012). According to Marx, t his is something of an innate drive that is engaged from the moment that an individual self-actualizes until the time that they die. This primary interpretation of the motivation degree provides is a primal means by which the capital accumulation theory is defined within the Marxist worldview. Delving directly into the definition itself, Marx understood capitalism to be locked in something of a self induced death spiral. This was ultimately the result of the fact that Marx understanding of capital was a situation in which humans invariably seek after wealth and self-enrichment as a means to define their own reality. Although this in and of itself represents and unethical approach, far more unethical, according to Marx, is the reality of fact this reality invariably takes place on the backs of others. This enrichment at the expense of others has profound and severe consequences due to the fact that brutal treatment of the producers is oftentimes affected as a means of capital accrual /accumulation. In short, Marx’s concept of capital accumulation can be understood with regards to the illustration and so many economists oftentimes make with regards to t

Christians should take more interest in ethics Assignment

Christians should take more interest in ethics - Assignment Example According to Brit Hume, the recent financial crisis was a result of unethical behavior that was conducted with regard to the functioning of the financial markets, government, lending banks and lastly the public. It becomes imperative to be stated in this regard that the proper pursuance of the commandments in bible by the Christians would have checked such an occurrence. It has been stated by Exodus 20:15 under the eighth commandment that one should not steal. This implies that one should not earn by stealing from others or in an unethical way (Long, â€Å"Christian Ethics: A Very Short Introduction†). According to the laws stated under the deuteronomic code, 25:13-16 laid down the need of ordering just weights as well as measures. This implies that there needs to exist an honest and ethical relationship between the trader and the customers focusing on a fair policy of pricing (Hall, â€Å"Deuteronomy†). It has also been stated by Luke 19:1 in this regard that salvation is deserved by all the individuals even in case of unethical conducts as all individuals are considered to be equal in the eyes of god (Alexander, â€Å"Christianity and Ethics†). The above teachings as stated in the bible evidently focus on the aspect of ethics and the way it should guide and direct the behavior of the individuals. Therefore, the practice of the teachings of Jesus or the Christian ethics is believed to ensure the practice of ethics even in case of economic activities which would further prevent the occurrences of such financial crises in the

Network Key Terms Essay Example for Free

Network Key Terms Essay The Internet- The global network formed by interconnecting most of the networks on the planet, with each home and company network connecting to an Internet service provider (ISP), which in turn connects to other ISPs. Internet edge- The part of the Internet between an ISP and the ISP customer, whether the customer is a company or organization with a large private TCP/IP network, or whether the customer is a single individual. point of presence- A term used by service providers, particularly for WAN or Internet service providers instead of traditional telcos, that refers to the building where the provider keeps its equipment. Access links that connect the customer device to the WAN service physically connect into the POP. Internet core- The part of the Internet created through network links between ISPs that creates the ability of the ISPs to send IP packets to the customers of the ISPs that connect to the core. Internet access- A broad term for the many technologies that can be used to connect to an ISP so that the device or network can send packets between itself and the ISP. analog modem- A device at the customer and ISP end of an analog circuit, created when one modem calls the phone number of the other modem, with the two modems sending data using the analog circuit. DSL- Digital subscriber line. A type of Internet access service in which the data flows over the local loop cable from the home to the telco central office, where a DSLAM uses FDM technology to split out the data and send it to a router, and split out the voice frequencies and send them to a traditional voice switch. cable Internet- A term referring to Internet access services provided by a cable company, using many components, including a cable modem, coaxial cable, and a CMTS at the cable company head end. default route- In a router, a concept in which the router has a special route, the default route, so that when a rout er tries to route a packet, but the packet’s destination does not match any other route, the router routes the packet based on the default route. host name- A name made up of alphabetic, numeric, and some special characters, used to identify a specific IP host. Host names that follow the convention for domain names in the DNS system use a hierarchical design, with periods  separating parts of the name. Domain Name System- The name of both a protocol and the system of actual DNS servers that exist in the world. In practice, DNS provides a way for the world to distribute the list of matching host name/IP address pair information, letting each company maintain its own naming information, but allowing the entire world to discover the IP address used by a particular host name, dynamically, using DNS protocols, so that any client can refer to a destination by name and send IP packets to that host. Subdomain- With DNS naming terminology, this term refers to a part of a host name (or domain name).That smaller part can be the part that a company registers through IANA or some authorized agency to identify all hosts inside that company. IPv4 address exhaustion- A term referring to the very real problem in the worldwide Internet, which first presented itself in the late 1980s, in which the world appeared to be running out of the available IPv4 address space. classless interdomain routing (CIDR)- One of the short-term solutions to the IPv4 address exhaustion problem that actually helped solve the problem for a much longer time frame.CIDR allows more flexibility in how many addresses IANA assigns to a company, and it helps reduce Internet routing table sizes through route aggregation. Network Address Translation (NAT)- One of the short-term solutions to the IPv4 address exhaustion problem that actually helped solve the problem for a much longer time frame. NAT reduces the number of public IP addresses needed by one ISP customer by using one public IP address for the traffic from many real client hosts. Acronyms: BGP- Border Gateway Protocol CATV- Cable TV CIDR- Classes Interdomain Routing CMTS- Cable Modem Terminating System DSL- Digital Subscriber Line DSLAM- DSL Access Multiplexer FTTC- Fiber to the Curb HFC- Hybrid Fiber Coaxial IANA- Internet Assigned Numbers Authority IPS- Intrusion Prevention Systems ISP- Internet Service Provider NAT- Network Address Translation POP- Point of Presence RIR- Regional Internet Registries RJ-11- Registered Jack 11 SOHO- Small Office/Home Office

First Love by John Clare Essay -- First Love John Clare Poems Poetry E

First Love by John Clare How do different poets convey the idea of Love? â€Å"First Love† by John Clare was written in the 19th century. It is a poem about how the poet had fallen in love but it turned out it was unrequited. Whereas â€Å"Song† by W.H.Auden written in the 20th century, is a poem about how someone has been in love but then lost them to death. They are both quite similar in the fact that they are both about loving someone but not being able to have them. However they are different because â€Å"Song† is about two people having been in love and then losing it, rather than â€Å"First Love† in which the love is unrequited, and not being fulfilled. In the poem â€Å"First Love† by John Clare the poet writes about what seems to be a very overwhelming feeling. The poem is written in three stanzas and in each one the feelings develop. It has a rhyme structure of AB,AB, CD, CD etc. The first stanza has eight syllables in each line and the other two have a pattern of 8,6,8,6,8,6,8,6. I think it may be written like this because in the first stanza the feeling are simpler and then they get more complex as the poem progresses- like the syllable patterns. In stanza one the crush begins. He sees her and is suddenly struck by her beauty- â€Å"Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower.† This simile is saying that her face opened up and revealed something beautiful just like a flower does. It brings the image of spring to mind because flowers blooming are associated with it. The poet describes never having felt this way before- hence the title â€Å"First Love†. â€Å"I ne’er was struck before that hour With love so sudden and so sweet.† It suggests that he was surprised that it happened so quickly. It seems that it w... ...in â€Å"Song† the poet writes about the man he loved but can’t have because he died. They are both quite sad poems. The main differences are the love in â€Å"Song† can’t occur because someone has died, whereas in â€Å"First Love† both people are alive it is just either one sided love, or not allowed. From looking into John Clare’s history I found out that he was not allowed to marry the girl he loved, because she was a better class that him. Also â€Å"Song† concentrates very much on the bad bits, whereas â€Å"First Love† reflects on some of the good feelings the poet has had because of love. Personally I preferred â€Å"Song† by W.H.Auden because it felt more meaningful. Although I did like â€Å"First Love† it didn’t touch me as much. I think I learnt a lot from both poems, it taught me that love can be very painful and everyone suffers because of it at some time in their life. First Love by John Clare Essay -- First Love John Clare Poems Poetry E First Love by John Clare How do different poets convey the idea of Love? â€Å"First Love† by John Clare was written in the 19th century. It is a poem about how the poet had fallen in love but it turned out it was unrequited. Whereas â€Å"Song† by W.H.Auden written in the 20th century, is a poem about how someone has been in love but then lost them to death. They are both quite similar in the fact that they are both about loving someone but not being able to have them. However they are different because â€Å"Song† is about two people having been in love and then losing it, rather than â€Å"First Love† in which the love is unrequited, and not being fulfilled. In the poem â€Å"First Love† by John Clare the poet writes about what seems to be a very overwhelming feeling. The poem is written in three stanzas and in each one the feelings develop. It has a rhyme structure of AB,AB, CD, CD etc. The first stanza has eight syllables in each line and the other two have a pattern of 8,6,8,6,8,6,8,6. I think it may be written like this because in the first stanza the feeling are simpler and then they get more complex as the poem progresses- like the syllable patterns. In stanza one the crush begins. He sees her and is suddenly struck by her beauty- â€Å"Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower.† This simile is saying that her face opened up and revealed something beautiful just like a flower does. It brings the image of spring to mind because flowers blooming are associated with it. The poet describes never having felt this way before- hence the title â€Å"First Love†. â€Å"I ne’er was struck before that hour With love so sudden and so sweet.† It suggests that he was surprised that it happened so quickly. It seems that it w... ...in â€Å"Song† the poet writes about the man he loved but can’t have because he died. They are both quite sad poems. The main differences are the love in â€Å"Song† can’t occur because someone has died, whereas in â€Å"First Love† both people are alive it is just either one sided love, or not allowed. From looking into John Clare’s history I found out that he was not allowed to marry the girl he loved, because she was a better class that him. Also â€Å"Song† concentrates very much on the bad bits, whereas â€Å"First Love† reflects on some of the good feelings the poet has had because of love. Personally I preferred â€Å"Song† by W.H.Auden because it felt more meaningful. Although I did like â€Å"First Love† it didn’t touch me as much. I think I learnt a lot from both poems, it taught me that love can be very painful and everyone suffers because of it at some time in their life.

The Sole Remaining Supplier

Although the liability of a malfunctioned transistor is on he manufacturer, Justifying the manufacturer's acts of deception would be utilitarianism because of Its moral reasoning. In this paper, I shall discuss the general utilitarian issues of the case. In addition, I will apply the different steps of the utility Test and I shall apply this comparative approach to the study of the Common-Good Test.Although my judgments are implicitly concerned with generalizing the ethical issues of the case, I shall criticize the utilitarianism; the view that the best decision is the one that maximizes the expected utility over those who are affected Baron 1990). In addition, the paper shall inform as well as to which approach, the utility Test, or the Common-Good Test best evaluates the case. Introduction utilitarianism is foreseen as unjust because it leads to conclusions that permit those who are fortunate to hurt people with less fortunate situations.For example, in The Case of the Sole Remaini ng Supplier, if the company decides to continue it sells of transistors without the proper engineering testing It is benefiting financially at the cost of the pacemaker patients and their families who rely on such technology for survival. If utilitarianism Is the normative theory. Hen my Judgments correct or not could fail to bring sense to any present or future consequence.However, this sort of knowledge will allow the reader to understand the situation of the case. Utilitarian Issues There were many ethical issues involving the selling of transistor supplies to the pacemaker company. If the company continues to supply the transistors then It Is possible that It could suffer a future financial loss. If a lawsuit were to occur, the company would not only lose financial profits but also its shareholders and employees would suffer from the consequence as well.By stopping the selling of the transistors to the pacemaker company, it would put them out of business; however, the supplier n eeds to evaluate the number of deaths that have occurred because of the different malfunctions of the transistors. On contrast, if the company remains as the sole supplier of the units and decides to stop Its manufacturing, heart patients In need of a pacemaker would die.In addition, the pacemaker technology would be put at a halt and improvements would never be found; therefore, future heart pacemaker patients would not benefit from any innovative breakthroughs. Utility Test The consequences of a heart patient dying because of the selling of a transistor are high according to the case; however, based on Thomas Shanks, (1996) heart patients In need of a pacemaker Implant for survival can be saved only by supplying the transistors but the company that manufactures the transistors are concerned saved.Although the pacemaker technology was in its infancy, malfunctions continued to be of concern to the manufacturers because of the legal actions that could occur; therefore, the utilitaria n question would be determined on the following question: How many deaths will occur because of the malfunctions with the transistors? The answer could be that in cases such as, The Case of the Sole Remaining Supplier the patient in need of an implant, the supplier, the manufacturer, and the stakeholder should sacrifice the chances of a malfunction although all of the patients involved have a right not to sacrifice in any way.However, a right is a social rule that saves people certain worries and protective behavior. If a heart patient in need of an implant is sacrificed, all human beings would have to take precautions against companies such as this one for the benefit of there. In addition, all individuals regardless of medical reasons would worry about situations like this because at the end, implanting a pacemaker at their risk for the benefit of others would worry everyone. For this principle, the sacrifice may not be Justified in utilitarian terms.Outcomes or Utility Rights can always be outweighed; therefore, rights are never absolute. An individual's Judgments are prone to error. We suspect of those who take a situation upon themselves to violate someone else's rights for their own good or someone else's good. Rights are worth enforcing because they serve as a utilitarian purpose. In a utilitarian analysis, practices put forward as rights might not be Justifiable in terms of their consequences because they are for their own goal achievement rather than for everyone.In short terms, heart patients in need of a pacemaker would not be the only ones suffering from such consequences because all individuals have equal standing rights as a person regardless of medical reasons or not. Applying the Utility Test Making the correct decision to produce the best outcome for everyone requires a revision of the current engineering testing. The following considerations will examine the company's goods while minimizing the harm to heart patients. Without the manufacturer of the transistors, the company will go out of business, the employees lose their Jobs, and shareholders lose their money. The supplier company runs the risk of legal action, which would result in the possible employee layoffs and shareholders experience a potential financial loss. Pacemaker patients face death because manufacturer would stop selling transistors for the creation of pacemakers. However, if the transistors continue to be manufactured pacemaker patients continue to face a possible death because of malfunctions. 0 Future icemaker patients although not the primary stakeholders, could benefit from the implants because of the ongoing advances and improvements that the company does to improve their units.The following possible options could be taken into consideration by the supply company. 0 Stop selling transistors to the buying company. Although the supplier losses profit earned from the sales of the transistors, it would avoid any future legal actions and avoid Jeopard izing the company. In addition, the rights of the supplier's employees and stakeholders would be preserved. Employees will continue to have a Job and earn a living, which it would to be possible if layoffs occurred after the financial lawsuits. On contrast, the company in business and earning profits. Future patients could benefit from new and improved pacemaker technology. It also preserves the right of their employees and shareholders to continue earning a living and making profit. It also preserves the rights of the patients by providing a choice. The patient will make the decision of risking a malfunction without someone else's decision. Drawing a Conclusion The ethical decision would be to continue to supply the transistors in order for the majority of people to benefit.If the manufacturing company stopped producing the pacemakers, the patient's basic right would be lost; therefore, their freedom to life would be lost as well. An individual's should outweigh any financial gain or loss too company and although the pacemaker technology was a new innovative alternative, consideration should be given to how it would make a difference in the future. Employees would keep their right to earn a living, while the company's shareholders keep the right to increase their wealth. This decision is the only possible way that would serve the majority of the people.Common Good Test As the Pacemaker technology was serving as the common good, by protecting people's rights to a new and promising medical technology, the supplier of the transistors and the manufacturing company compared the penalty Judgments in question. They would make safer product vs.. The question of not making the product. For example, the company knew that the transistors malfunctioned but was reconsidering the selling of the product because they were concerned with the possible legal actions. If the company stopped selling the transistors, it would avoid any legal action.On contrast, society depends on new medical technologies; therefore, if they kept the possible malfunctions as a secret it would avoid any future effects. The two facts mean that the consequences of selling the transistors would justify the means because by selling the units an action is right if it creates the best outcome. However, this stipulation rules out any effects because if patients accepted an implant knowing of such malfunctions rather than denying the malfunctions the company is acting honest and its fulfilling its contractual obligation at the same time. Which ApproachThe Utility Test is the most informative method compared to the Common Good Test because it allows people to determine if the transistors design is defective; therefore, it makes the manufacturer liable for any injuries that their product causes. Conclusion Utilitarianism allows a company or an individual evaluate their decisions through a set of practical guidelines (Baron, 1985). In this paper, I have summarized the utilitarian approac h to the common good test and I have described several suggestions in which an individual's intuition often contradicts the utilitarian theory.People seem to think that penalties are inherently deserved and that they should be applied even when there is deterrence. In addition, it is believed that compensation should be greater when people get harmed by nature. In contrast to utilitarian, people are reluctant in harming people Just to help another person, and they become reluctant to initiate reforms when the benefits are unequally distributed although People differ in each case but according to the findings of Larkin, Anisette, & Morgan (1990), those who follow utilitarian are no different from those who do not follow utilitarian.

Absolute Thresholds and Differential Thresholds

Absolute thresholds are the minimum level of stimulus intensity needed for a stimulus to be perceived. In other words, the absolute threshold is the amount of intensity needed for a person to detect a difference between something and nothing. Differential thresholds refer to the intensity difference needed between two stimuli before people can perceive that stimuli are different. Thus, the differential threshold is a relative concept. Weber’s law (1834) states the positive relation between the first stimulus and the second stimulus. The greater the initial stimulus, the stronger the additional intensity need for the second stimulus to be perceived as different. Absolute thresholdDifferential threshold Amount of stimulusOne stimulusTwo stimuli MeasurementDistance between stimulus and nothingDistance between two stimuli Compare between absolute threshold and differential threshold, absolute threshold just include one stimulus while differential threshold include two. In measurement, absolute threshold measures the distance between stimulus and nothing while differential threshold measures the distance between two stimuli. As I am a marketing student, therefore, the first thing which comes to my mind when I am trying to start off with this piece of journal is that, do these differences between the two thresholds matter with marketers’ marketing strategies? And after I do some research on the internet and with my personal experience, I am quite sure that it does matter. The importance of two thresholds can be different to marketers under different situations. Absolute thresholdDifferential threshold Advertising ElementsExposure, Size, ColorAdvertising quality PeopleInvolvement, motivation, attention, attitude Concerning advertising elements, absolute threshold focuses on exposure, size, color, etc to attract target customers’ attention while differential threshold focuses on the advertising quality appear to customer in order for them to percept the different between those. These two thresholds are based on different people and are closely related to their involvement, motivation, attention, attitude on the particular good or service. So different people will have different threshold when percept the same object. When a firm launches a new product or a new brand emerges in the market, this is when the absolute threshold is more important to marketers. Because absolute threshold measures the minimum intensity that the customers can percept, as the new brand or product probably needs recognitions from them, otherwise poor sales arise. Therefore, the higher the exposures of advertising advance to gain consumers’ attention. On the other hand, the well use of five sensory techniques in the advertising can easier imprint in their mind. When a firm is modifying a product or service (positive improvement or negative change) that either willing or unwilling to let a customer in perceiving the difference, the differential threshold will be considered to be more important. Because differential threshold measure the intensity difference needed between two stimuli before people can perceive, the intensity modify of a product that cause the customer percept or not is what marketers’ concern. For instance, marketers want to know to what degree of a price cut or a bigger meal can be percept by customers, and thus affect their motivation to consume more. On the other hand, marketers want to know to what degree of raise in price or a smaller meal that can’t be precept by customers, or else it will increase the customer’s cost risk and decrease his or her motivation in purchasing. When taking in the consideration in such a negative change, it reminds me with one of my personal experience. As I am a fan of Coca-Cola, I used to drink at least three cans a week and I would save those cans up on my own desk in order to bring those cans for recycling once a week. One day when I was doing the same practice after washing the can and try to put it to the group of cans on my desk, I found out that the can was smaller than those cans that I bought before, and when I took a look on the volume of the Cola, the drink can was cut to 330 ml from 355 ml which indicates a 7 percent reduction in the size of the can. I was kind of shocking that how come a Coca-Cola fan could not recognize such a change in size. After attending the lecture, I know that there is another dimension of sensory discrimination what is known as the â€Å"just noticeable difference† (JND). Weber’s work was applied to marketing by Miller (1962) which states that a 7 percent change in other sizes of similar products is needed before a change is noticed. This implies and explains what I experienced and how the marketers try to apply this theory in their strategic moves.

Phenomenal impact of mass media essays

Phenomenal impact of mass media essays Mass media is vaguely defined as a medium of communication via television, books, radios, newspapers, magazines, and recently the Internet, designed to reach the majority of people. Methods of communication have evolved. What started from the limited oral form has expanded into the written, printed, electronic and digital forms. However, the changes took place at an astonishing rate only during the second Industrial Revolution and generally after the end of the Great Depression. It then resumed after the Second World War, into the present age. During the start of the 20th century, the advert of mass media was driven by technology. People during those ages were enthusiastic about receiving information and were hungry for news. Standards of living were on the rise. Many men and women were also encouraged to immigrate, which fostered an even bigger need in reliable global news and communication exchange. In addition, the mass media industry had welcomed a boost in the demands for instant news during the First World War. When the Second World War ended, a big percentage of the people living in Europe and America possessed at least one medium of direct communication. The radio was especially popular. By the time the 21st century arrived, nearly 90 percent of all households in developed nations owned at least one television set. More than half also had a personal computer complete with Internet access. Many forms of the printed media were available free to the public. As the impact of mass media swept across the world, media companies multiplied massively. Everyone, from politicians, aspiring artists, to scientists wanted to be a part of the phenomenon. Eventually, the companies merged and have become corporate giants. The television industry itself is now a multi-billion-dollar business. Modern mass media forms, especially the television, have spread the political and entertainment messages with unprecedented pace. T...

Assessment Of My Health Record Samples

My health record (MHR) was developed to assist the patients and the healthcare industry, and it is successful in achieving the targets. However, the system is not perfect and has problems associated with it. Out of the many problems associated with the technology, one of the most concerning is the implementation and skills to operate the system. The reason behind the above-made statement lies on the fact that the implementation of the system is costly and requires additional expenses in training and providing the training resources to the stakeholders (McAlearney et al., 2015). The training is provided to make the stakeholders comfortable and aware of the systems operations and uses. Additionally, maintaining the system also demands expertise which the healthcare units have to hire to maintain their servers and systems. Another problem that is associated with the MHR technology is the difficulties that the healthcare experts face in updating the data of the patient regularly. The people who are not comfortable with the technology also finds organising the data according to the priority a difficult task. The older patients also prefer the traditional method of their medical records because they feel comfortable with it. Other people think that the data is stored on the internet which makes the technology insecure and vulnerable to cyber-attacks (Dinev et al., 2016). Hence, in conclusion, it can be stated that no real problem is associated with the system except for the perception towards it. The problem with the implementation cost can also be ignored if the systems long-term benefits are measured. The discussed technology was designed to assist in the medical industry, and it is fulfilling its objective. The capabilities of the technology are vast, and one of the most significant of them is the e-documentation. E-documentation refers to maintaining individual’s health record including the past and present condition electronically (Walsh et al., 2017). The documents are made available online to omit the hassle of carrying the documents and worrying about their safekeeping. The documents stored electronically can also be shared with healthcare units and experts in dire situation electronically with proper authentication. As discussed in the problems, one of the biggest challenges to the deemed system is the perception of the people that the system is insecure is a myth. The reason for the above-stated statement is that the data uploaded on the servers are kept encrypted, and appropriate authentication are provided to keep it protected from the trespassers. Additionally, a unique identification is provided to the users to enhance the security even further. The system stores data electronically which offers it the capability of managing and accessing the data from geographically diverse location. The system is also capable of enhancing the capabilities of the experts and the healthcare units. The experts and the healthcare units can test and evaluate new technologies and method in the deemed platform ("eHealth Reference Platform - Australian Digital Health Agency", 2018). The system is also capable of assisting the healthcare units in managing the inventory and offer notification when needed. The deemed system’s capability has been discussed in the above section which can be evaluated to determine the benefits of the system. On evaluation, it is evident that the system offers ease in the medical process. Hence, it can be stated that the system reduces the hassle in expert and patient communication and even enhances the caring of the patients which can be of great assistance for the people with disability and seniors (Hemsley et al., 2016). One of the capabilities of the deemed system is that it offers notification to the experts which helps the experts to cite proper attention towards the patient. The documentation part is also simplified which also preserves the expert’s time which he/she can use in caring for the patients. It is evident from the discussion above that the deemed technology is costly. However, it is partially correct as after the implementation the system saves a lot of money.   For the healthcare units, the capital is preserved inventory management and testing of new systems and techniques which they can perform with assistance from the system. While the patients are financially benefitted by omitting the mailing costs and the transportation cost that the patients incur in visiting the healthcare units. The system is capable of assisting in large geographical domain which offers the benefits of assisting in the dire situation (Turvey et al., 2014). In case, the expert is not physically available to the patient due to geographical distance then the former can offer medical advice or even refer the latter to another suitable expert. Hence, it can be stated that the deemed system provides multiple benefits which should be entertained by everyone. Dinev, T., Albano, V., Xu, H., D’Atri, A., & Hart, P. (2016). Individuals’ attitudes towards electronic health records: A privacy calculus perspective. In  Advances in healthcare informatics and analytics  (pp. 19-50). Springer, Cham. eHealth Reference Platform - Australian Digital Health Agency. (2018).  Digitalhealth.gov.au. Retrieved 11 March 2018, from https://www.digitalhealth.gov.au/get-started-with-digital-health/what-is-digital-health/features-of-the-my-health-record-system/ehealth-reference-platform Hemsley, B., Georgiou, A., Carter, R., Hill, S., Higgins, I., van Vliet, P., & Balandin, S. (2016). Use of the My Health Record by people with communication disability in Australia: A review to inform the design and direction of future research.  Health Information Management Journal,  45(3), 107-115. McAlearney, A. S., Hefner, J. L., Sieck, C. J., & Huerta, T. R. (2015). The journey through grief: insights from a qualitative study of electronic health record implementation.  Health services research,  50(2), 462-488. Turvey, C., Klein, D., Fix, G., Hogan, T. P., Woods, S., Simon, S. R., ... & Wakefield, B. (2014). Blue Button use by patients to access and share health record information using the Department of Veterans Affairs' online patient portal.  Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association,  21(4), 657-663. Walsh, L., Hemsley, B., Allan, M., Adams, N., Balandin, S., Georgiou, A., ... & Hill, S. (2017). The E-health Literacy Demands of Australia's My Health Record: A Heuristic Evaluation of Usability.  Perspectives in health information management,  14(Fall).

Letter to Francesco Vettori and The Prince Essay

Letter to Francesco Vettori and The Prince - Essay Example Alternatively, we can choose to act, and discover our own truth behind the layers of apparent realities. Different approaches to reading into events in our lives have been described down the ages, one of the most dramatic being that of Machiavelli, who suggested an alternative concept of truth, in terms of a philosophy of power, an "effective truth". According to him, reality was much opposed to the idealistic Greek and Christian concepts, and it was not primarily moral or ethical , but political, to be manipulated in order to gain power. He recommends in the fifteenth chapter of The Prince: And many have imagined for themselves republics and principalities that no one has ever seen or known to be in reality. Because how one ought to live is so far removed from how one lives that he who lets go of what is done for that which one ought to do sooner learns ruin than his own preservation: because a man who might want to make a show of goodness in all things necessarily comes to ruin among so many who are not good. Because of this it is necessary for a prince, wanting to maintain himself, to learn how to be able to be not good and to use this and not use it according to necessity. (Machiavelli,1513) Not only does Machiavelli feel that manipulation and distortion of facts is not just a part of reality, he also claims that one who truly worships power as the only truth can bend his destiny to his designs, and fate herself would comply. He clarifies this in Chapter 25 of The Prince: Nevertheless, not to extinguish our free will, I hold it to be true that Fortune is the arbiter of one-half of our actions, but that she still leaves us to direct the other half, or perhaps a little less....So it happens with fortune, who shows her power where valor has not prepared to resist her, and thither she turns her forces where she knows that barriers and defenses have not been raised to constrain her.(Machiavelli, 1513) In stark contrast is Jorge Luis Borges, for whom the reality of destiny is inescapably omnipotent, and the only way to deal with it is to fashion alternate realities, understand it in terms of myth, an opinion for which he has often been criticized : Borges takes away the "real" weight of history, situating it in a mythic horizon, negating it. When he places the whole episode (and, we might say, the whole period) in a place outside of the concrete and the factic, outside of the historical, he deprives it of all concrete importance, of every possibility of influencing reality, of forming part of the historical process.... Once again, Borges negates reality. ( Borello, 1991) Despite creating commentaries on books that did not exist, historical events that never took place, and practicing literary forgery, his concept of reality was very much accepting, in creating myths he sought not to negate reality but to pause its triumphal march so as to grasp it better. Our destiny (unlike the hell of Swedenborg or the hell of Tibetan mythology) is not frightening because it is unreal: it is frightening because it is irreversible and ironclad. Time is the substance of which I am made. Time is a river that sweeps me away, but I am the river; it is a tiger that tears me apart, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges. ( Borges, 1946)

PR Activity & Promotional Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

PR Activity & Promotional Assessment - Essay Example Marketing guru Philip Kotler also has developed several pages in his bestseller "Marketing Management" to the centrality of customer in affecting brand-building/ PR exercise. Thus, any definition of PR has to come from a customer point-of-view itself. No major organisation of today, can survive without at least a few members of their team, dedicated to launching PR initiatives in order to give the organisation, a certain recognition in the area where it wants its influence to spread, or to be maintained. The purpose and scope of PR can be applied to a multitude of organisations; Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, gives an all-inclusive list in this way (webpage on PR): 3. NGO's such as schools, hospitals, orphanages, etc. use PR as a means to draw awareness to their cause, and appeal to the heartstrings of charitable people in order to establish funds. 4. Politicians use PR exercises, in order to extract votes, or to push new measures. President Bush once came under criticism for spending nearly $2.2 million on his campaign to overhaul US social security (Common Dreams News Centre). In order to grasp the finer elements of PR's nature, it is useful to corroborate information from a PR consultant itself. Sunday Odedele, Managing Director of a Lagos-based PR agency, looks at his profession from the angle of "philosophy" (webpage). Odedele reasons that PR is "human-centric", since the process of maintaining a brand-conscious image stems from the basic human approach to transmit social signals by means of communication, he explores the nature of the PR exercise from the vantage point of core philosophy. Enumerating basic human needs as "survival, health, freedom, fellowship, self respect, knowledge, fulfilment, and happiness", he unconditionally mentions that these needs must be fully-accounted for in any endeavour of a PR initiative, because ignoring them would

Jazz is a Unique Style Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Jazz is a Unique Style - Essay Example The crowd was generally dressed casually and had a wide variety of listeners, ranging from young people to much older ones. What I quickly noticed was that the environment was not as quiet as I had expected it would be. I had done a bit of research into Jazz music prior to the concert and I expected the audience to be dead quiet and listening attentively to the music. This was not the case as part of the crowd was unbearably noisy as compared to other concerts I have been to. This select part of the crowd did not seem to appreciate the truly beautiful music that was being performed. In past concerts I have been in, loud conversations and disruptive noises were not allowed as this was seen to be distracting the performers as well as the audience who were listening attentively. I was amazed though at how well the musicians performed despite this. It was almost as if they had anticipated it. I believe this goes to prove that these musicians can perform anywhere and still do a stellar jo b. The whole time I was there, I listened closely to the music, watched the performer go through the motions and I felt like my mind and emotions wandered in between the melodies. I must admit that I enjoy the guitar most since my childhood, so watching and listening to John Pisano playing it was very rewarding. I got wrapped up in his playing and got a thrill watching him strum the guitar. This song had a constant tempo; it was slow, funky and had an earthy sound to it which made it sound more like the blues.... I had done a bit of research into Jazz music prior to the concert and I expected the audience to be dead quiet and listening attentively to the music. This was not the case as part of the crowd was unbearably noisy as compared to other concerts I have been to. This select part of the crowd did not seem to appreciate the truly beautiful music that was being performed. In past concerts I have been in, loud conversations and disruptive noises were not allowed as this was seen to be distracting the performers as well as the audience who were listening attentively. The only time there was noise was when the performance was over and everyone applauded. I was amazed though at how well the musicians performed despite this. It was almost as if they had anticipated it. I believe this goes to prove that these musicians can perform anywhere and still do a stellar job. The whole time I was there, I listened closely to the music, watched the performer go through the motions and I felt like my mind and emotions wandered in between the melodies. I must admit that I enjoy the guitar most since my childhood, so watching and listening to John Pisano playing it was very rewarding. I got wrapped up in his playing and got a thrill watching him strum the guitar. I was hooked from the very first song they played. This song had a constant tempo; it was slow, funky and had an earthy sound to it which made it sound more like the blues. John Pisano seemed to be improvising during his  solo on the guitar. The bassist was also magnificent on this particular night and his performance was both strong and melodic. This was evident on the second song, in which he actually picked up his bow and employed the arco technique.

Human Resource Practices At Hbl Commerce Essay

Human Resource Practices At Hbl Commerce Essay Habib Bank Limited (HBL) commenced its operations in the year 1947. It has the privilege of being the first bank to establish itself in Pakistan after independence. From there on, the bank has taken leaps and bounds and has shown tremendous growth in the field of banking. It has now because the largest private sector bank in Pakistan. It has customer base of around five million people. HBL has around 1705 branches across the countries. HBL also has international presence in around 26 countries. The bank has subsidiaries in Hong Kong and United Kingdom, it has affiliates in Nepal, Nigeria, Kenya, and Kyrgyzstan. HBL also has representative offices in China, and Iran. The vast international network makes HBL the largest domestic multinational. Such achievements strengthen the position of the bank not only in the domestic market but also brighten the image of the bank in the international market. The company is now planning to expand its operations in UAE, UK, South and Central Asia, Africa, and the Far East. HBL has 55 branches worldwide. The commodities offered by HBL include product offerings and services in Retail and Consumer Banking. The bank has the honor of holding the largest Corporate Banking portfolio in Pakistan with an active Investment Banking arm. Small Medium Enterprise (SME) and Agricultural lending programs and other banking services are made available to customers residing in urban and rural areas. The company leads the market by holding a domestic market share of 40 percent. HBL continues to dominate the domestic banking sector with a major share-holding in foreign remittances and loans to SMEs, traders, and farmers. HBL is currently rated AAA (Long term) and A-1+ (Short term) with stable outlook and has a balance sheet size of USD 13.82 billion. It is the first Pakistani bank to raise Tier II Capital from external sources. (Habib Bank Limited, 2012) HBL has always led the market with example of quality performance and extra ordinary treatment with the clients. It has adapted with the changing times and evolved its practices as well for the betterment of the company. The company has its headquarters in Habib Bank Plaza, Karachi. Company History HBL was founded by late Mr. Ismail Habib on 25th August, 1942 at Bombay. At that time it was the first Muslim bank to be established in the Indian Sub-continent. It was initiated with a capital of Rs 2.5 Million with a mere 12 branch network. (Ayaz, 2011) Prior to Pakistans independence, Quaid-e-Azam during his campaigns realized the importance of a bank that was going to cater to the needs of the Muslims residing in Hindustan. He requested the Habib family to establish a commercial bank. Habib Bank Limited was thus created in 1941. The head office was located in Bombay (now Mumbai). The fixed capital was 25,000 rupees. The bank played a vital role in utilizing the funds from the Muslim community to finance The All-Indian Muslim League for the establishment of Pakistan. HBL also helped the refugees who were hurt in the communal riots and violence that preceded the departure of British. After independence HBL shifted its headquarters to Karachi. Habib Bank Limiteds first international branch was setup in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1951. The bank started its international from this year and never looked back after that. In 1975, the company built the Habib Bank Limited building in Karachi to celebrate its 25th anniversary. (Habib Bank Lmited, 2012) The company was nationalized in Zia-ul-Haqs era. Prior to nationalization, HBL had a domestic market share of about 40 percent. After nationalization HBL continued to dominate the market and held a major share in inward foreign remittances (55percent) and loans to small industries. The company expanded its international boundaries and covered USA, Singapore, Oman, Belgium, Seychelles, Maldives, and the Netherlands. (Habib Bank Lmited, 2012) A decade after nationalization, HBLs annual profit was more than twice the combined profit of all the other commercial banks operating in Pakistan at that time which included United Bank Limited, National Bank of Pakistan, Allied Bank limited and Muslim Commercial Bank. HBL had been a source of rapid economic development in the state since its establishment. It financed various government transport schemes, agricultural schemes and leases over the years and remained the largest and one of the most profitable government entities till its privatization. (Ayaz, 2011) It is believed that HBL presented a blank cheque to Muhammad Ali Jinnah at the time of birth of Pakistan. The bank also looked over the initial financial matters of the state by assuming the status of the state treasury till the state bank came into existence. HBL therefore had been very close to the government of Pakistan since it was established due to these significant reasons. Vision Enabling people to advance with confidence and success (Habib Bank Limited, 2012) Habib Bank Limited wishes to see its customers excel in their lives with confidence. The vision of HBL is targeted towards the domestic market and focuses on fulfilling their needs and requirements in order to give them satisfaction, confidence, and the comfort they deserve. According to Rieches, 2012 the vision statement of a coporation provides a platform to inform competent personnel, create strategic alliances, and most importantly loyal customers. It is really a depiction of desired destination. The destination that the corporation wishes to arrive at. It is a long term long goal established by a corporation which reflects where the it wishes to see itself in the future. HBL vision statement is not a very strong vision statement. It does not clearly define where the company wishes to itself in the future. The vision statements are usually one liners and within this limitation the long term goal is defined. HBL however has failed to do so. From the vision statement the readers are not able to gauge about the future plans of the company and what it wants for itself. It does talk about its customers and their benefit. Customers is just one very small part of it. The corporate goal is the most significant thing to be mentioned in the vision statement. The focus of the company only remains on its customers. The vision to help the customers grow is in the right direction but the other stake holders are being ignored. That however is not a good strategy. It does not mention its shareholders, future plans, furture expansions etc. It also does not mention whether the company wants to remain the market leader or not. There is immense competition in the local market and it is no longer easy to survive in this fierce competition without having a crystal clear vision. The vision statement of the company is a weak statement and does nor portray or convey the future plans of the Bank. The statement leads to a lot of questions and it has a lot of ambiguities. Mission To make our customers prosper, our staff excel and create value for shareholders (Habib Bank Limited, 2012) The mission of HBL discusses its customers, employees, and the shareholders. The statement mentions three of the most important dimensions of the company. The main aim of a mission statement it to outline the short or medium term goals of an organization so that the employees can make strategies accordingly. Mission statements are given an enormous importance by the strategists. They consider it to be a reflection of how company is being operated and which direction it intends to take on. It is said to explain the core purpose of companys existence. Famous names in the field of strategic management consider mission statements to be a corner stone of an organization, and believe that a well thought out mission statements tells a lot about an organization (Wheelen Hunger, 2010). They identify nine important components of a mission statement. Though all of these might not be included, or be necessary, but their presence in the mission statement does make the mission statement powerful and gives it ability to make an impact a well. These components include customer, products and services, markets, technology, concern of survival, growth profitability, philosophy, self-concept, concern of public image and concern of employees (Adam, 2009). The researcher has used these nine components as gu ideline to analyze the existing mission statement of Habib Bank Limited. HBL mentions the first component, its customers first. It puts the customers and their betterment as a top priority. That is a very sound strategy. The bank is operation in a competitive market and if it does not follow a consumer centric approach then it is likely to experience downfall in its popularity. Therefore placing the customers as the first and foremost priority is a good strategy that is used by the company. The company indirectly promises to work for the success of its customers and make them prosperous in their life. There is another important dimension covered in the mission statement, the employees of the bank. The employees play a vital role in establishing the company in the market and eventually making it a leader. The mission statement of HBL talks about its employees and providing them with opportunities which would help them excel in their careers. This is a good strategy again. If a company is taking care of its employees it is very likely that the employees are going to work with loyalty for the betterment of the company. It mentions its customer, but more clarification would have been ideal. Its products and services are not clear at all, whereas other components of a powerful mission statement including markets, technology, concern of survival, growth and profitability, philosophy, self-concept, concern of public image and concern of employees is totally missing. Therefore this is a weak mission statement, which could be improved by incorporating these components in to it. Mission statements are often a little more elaborative, than the one under consideration, which conveys a much clearer picture of the organizations mission, purpose and objectives to its stakeholders. Habib Bank Limited should improve its mission statement. Make the component mentions in it more clear and make it more useful for its stakeholders. Values Our values are the fundamental principles that define our culture and are brought to life in our attitudes and behaviour. It is our values that make us unique and unmistakable. (Habib Bank Limited, 2012) Value of a company describes the traits and qualities that shape daily actions with the internal community, customers, and suppliers. These values shape corporate culture when they become deeply held driving forces and high priorities. (Rieches, 2012) Excellence This is at the core of everything we do. The markets in which we operate are becoming increasingly competitive, giving our customers an abundance of choice. Only through being the very best in terms of the service we offer, our products and premises can we hope to be successful and grow. (Habib Bank Limited, 2012) Integrity We are the leading bank in Pakistan and our success depends upon our trust. Our customers and society in general expect us to possess and steadfastly adhere to high moral principles and professional standards. (Habib Bank Limited, 2012) Customer Focus We understand fully the needs of our customers and adapt our products and services to meet these. We always strive to put the satisfaction of our customers first. (Habib Bank Limited, 2012) Meritocracy We believe in giving opportunities and advantages to our employees on the basis of their ability. We believe in rewarding achievement and in providing first-class career opportunities for all. (Habib Bank Limited, 2012) Progressiveness We believe in the advancement of the society through the adoption of the enlightened working practices, innovative new products and processes, and a spirit of enterprise. (Habib Bank Limited, 2012) Operational Structure HBL is one of the largest commercial bank of Pakistan. It accounts for a substantial share (20percent) of the total commercial banking market in Pakistan with a network of 1,705domestic branches; 55 overseas branches in 26 countries spread over Europe, the Middle East, Far East, Asia, Africa and the United States. (Ismail, 2009) HBL wholly owned Subsidiaries namely Habib Bank Financial Services (PVT) LTD. Karachi, Habib Finance International Ltd. (Hong Kong) and Habib Finance Australia Ltd. Sydney; two Joint Ventures namely Habib Nigeria Bank Ltd. (40%) and Himalayan Bank Ltd. (20%). Habib Bank Limited also has two representative offices in Iran and Egypt. (Ismail, 2009) Organization Structure Organization structure defines how job tasks are formally divided, grouped, and coordinated. There are six key elements that managers need to address: work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, span of control, centralization, decentralization, and formalization. (Robbins, Judge , Sanghi, 2010) Chairman President Board of Directors Senior Vice President Senior Vice President (Finance Audit) Senior Vice President (Asset Remedial) Senior Vice President (Corporate Banking) Senior Vice President (Corporate Banking, Financial Institute, Project Finance) Senior Vice President (Credit Policy) Senior Vice President (Retail Banking) Decision Making The decision making process at HBL is centralized. All the decisions are taken at the top level of the management without any consultation with the lower levels of the hierarchy. According to Famous names in the field of organization behavior define centralized decision making of being concentrated at a single point in the organization. (Robbins, Judge , Sanghi, 2010) The lower-level managers simply have to carry out the top managements directives. A centralized structure reflects a more rigid and strict culture at the organization. It is not considered to be a very responsive structure. Chain of Command The chain of command is an unbroken line of authority that extends from the top of the organization to the lowest echelon and clarifies who reports to whom. (Robbins, Judge , Sanghi, 2010) Chain of command identifies which employee is to report to whom. In HBL chain of command is clear and every employee knows their direct supervisor and to whom he can report. The company is using a unity of command chain of command. This particular type keeps the concept of unbroken line safe and ensures that the employee has one supervisor only to whom the employee is to report. If the unity of command gets broken then the employee might have to respond to the demands of two or more supervisors. Organizational Strategies There are primarily two main types of strategies adopted by the human resource department of an organization. In an interview with the Following are the two main strategies followed by the Human Resource department of Habib Bank Limited: Corporate Strategy HBL focus on two types of corporate strategies Geographic Expansion In this new era of 21st century it would not be wrong to call the world a global village. With the introduction of revolutionary technology the ends of the world are able to communicate with just a click. HBL is trying to capture different international markets by geographically expanding its operations. Diversification In todays competitive world only those companies are able to survive who are the fittest. The key is to either target a particular untapped market or target the needs of several different segments. The latter strategy ensures a wider coverage of the market and as a result increases the market share. HBL is following diversification strategy to tap different segments in the market which possess different needs. HBL introduces different services in intervals to entertain the needs of its diversified customer line. Business Unit Strategies Following are the business unit strategies for Habib Bank Limited: Cost Leadership The cost leadership strategy allows the firm to develop a competitive advantage in the market by keeping the costs as low as possible. The company is able to achieve cost leadership through efficient and effective production system. HBL follows this strategy by providing services to customers at costs lowers than the competitors. Differentiation Differentiation according to Micheal Porter is highlighting the distinctive competencies in a firm which would make the firm stand out from its competitors. HBL is following this strategy to provide unique services to its customer in the banking industry. Human Resource Department According to (Dessler Varkkey, 2012) Human resource is the process of acquiring, training, appraising, and compensating employees, and of attending to their labor relations, health and safety, and fairness concerns The human resource department of HBL tries to perform the same duties as mention by Dessler Varkkey. The department plays a significant role in creating value for the bank. HBL has a very efficient and active human resource department. It consists of competent employees who formulate strategies according to the local and global needs of the industry and employees. The department also skillfully tackles different problems related to the HR department. The department plays an active role in making the bank more successful every day. Over the years, HBL has adopted customer oriented approach in the recent years due to the changing market dynamics. In order to cater to the needs of these customers, the employees of HBL play a vital role. Therefore, in order to keep the employees happy and satisfied with their work, the HR department tries to take care of their needs and requirements in timely fashion. The department takes care of the companys asset the employees and hopes that the asset would pay the company back with full interest. Human Resource Strategies The Human resource department of Habib Bank Limited has six main strategies: Workflows In order to maximize the profits, HBL has planned a mix of long term and short term goals. These goals are designed in a manner that they would help HBL achieve a competitive edge over its competitors. The following measures are considered for this regard: Risk Management Unified Information Technology System Intensive Training and Professional Recruitment Re-organization of the Consumer and Retail Banking Business Information Technology system enhancement Product offering enhancement Advancement of Operations in urban areas Recruitment and Staffing Employment planning is where the recruitment and selection process commences at HBL. This process starts with the forecasting and planning of human resource required for the current and future positions. The process of selection and recruitment process is carried out tactfully and all the dimensions of the candidate are analyzed carefully. Future prospects are also identified while hiring the candidate. Skills, personality, attitude, knowledge are some of the aspects of the candidate which are judged carefully during the recruitment process. Vacant PositionRecruitment Process Forecasting of Positions Identify Pool of Candidates Develop pool of candidates Monitoring, Tailoring Development Screening / Short Listing Final Selection Recruitment and Selection Source: (Shahid, 2012) Employee Separations HBL has started a program which offers voluntary retirement schemes to employees. The employees get a golden handshake in return. The new term for golden handshake is Voluntary Separation Scheme (VSS). This scheme offers a special incentive to the employees who opt for the scheme and provides them a lump sum amount which equals to the salary of twelve months. Employees who work with the bank for a decade or more are entitled to the pension plan. This plan is going to help the employees in a manner that they will have no financial obligations after they have retired. Performance Appraisal Evaluating an employees current and past performance relative to its performance standards is called performance appraisal. A process that consolidates goal settings, performance appraisal and development into a single common system to ensure that employees performance is according to companys aims is called performance management. Ratings as practiced in HBL consist of following five kinds of factors. The following factors are put into consideration while reviewing the performance of an employee and making an appraisal: Productivity Attributes Technology Customer Service Personal Training According to (Dessler, A Framework for Human Resource Management, 2011), training refers to the methods employers use to give new or present employees the skills they need to perform their jobs. HBL follows the follows a four step following process. The training process is as follows: Needs Analysis Identify job performance skills needed, assesses skills of prospective trainees and develop objectives. Instructional Design Produce the training program content, including workbooks, exercises, and activities. Implementation In this step the process gives an opportunity to the trainees to experience situations close to practical life.   Evaluation In this step the success or failure of the program is assessed. Source: (Shahid, 2012) Training and Development Programs HBL uses the following practices for training and development of its employees: Management Trainee Management Trainee Officer (MTO) program looks for highly motivated candidates who exhibit the potential to become future leaders. At HBL, the MTO program offers extensive interactive classroom training, on the job rotations and personal mentoring from senior management to provide a comprehensive learning experience. Management Associate Management Associate Program at HBL is a training and rotational program. The program particularly focuses on handling the branch banking requirements. It also provides numerous opportunities across HBLs network of Retail, Corporate, and Commercial Banking. Cash officers Candidates in this program are the bank ambassadors. Therefore they are required to have exemplary skills when interacting with the clients. The program involves an extensive one-month training period based on branch banking operations before placement in one of the branches. Types of Processes On the Job Training It is when the new employee learns about the job by actually doing it. Methods of on the job training are as follows: Understudy Job rotation Special assignments Action learning Understudy It is also known as coaching. Under this method the employee is placed under the supervision of a professional employed at the organization. The professional provides guidance to the new employee. At HBL, the trainee works under the supervision of a senior manager. The trainee may also work with the employee to be replaced. It takes place at all the levels of the job. New and old, both the types of employees are trained with the help of this method. Job Rotation Job rotation is when an employee is moved from one department to another to not only broaden the skills of the employees but also to analyze the strong and weak points of the employee. HBLs manager associate program makes use of this type of training. Special Assignments Special assignments are given to the employee by the supervisor. These are assignments or tasks to be done within the premises of the branch. Based on the way the task is completed the supervisor analyzed the performance of the employee. Action learning This method is only to be used for the employees based at the managerial level. Under this method, the employees are to work full time in one department. The employees are assigned to take care of the problems which arise and provide relevant solutions for the problems. Compensation The salaries, rewards, bonuses, and incentives on the basis of job and performances are called compensations. HBLs compensation and benefits strategy combines the need to maintain a high performance culture along with market competitiveness. According to performance each employ gets benefits and compensation. Tenure duration is less preferred as compared to the performance of employees. Employees are paid in two forms: Direct Payments These are the payment in the form of wages, salaries, incentives, commissions, and bonuses.   Indirect Payments This mode of payment includes the benefits and perks that are given to the employees for example medical, car, insurance, residence, car fuel, easy loans etc. Industry Analysis The Banking sector is an integral part of the countrys financial services industry. The banking sector experienced growth in 2001 03. During this tenure the deposits rose almost by a 100 percent. The competition is high in the industry with the presence of local and foreign banks. Almost a decade ago, opportunities for foreign banks, especially in consumer and retail banking, were greater  than ever before. In the financial year of 2004-05, the banking sector experienced growth rates of 21% and 36% in its deposit and advances portfolio respectively. This helped improve the stability of the banking sector as compared to 2003 04. (Pakistan Banking Sector, 2009) A significant shift of focus from industrial lending to consumer products has allowed the banks to enjoy enormous spreads. However, the manufacturing sector is still enjoying the highest share in credit facilities extended by the banking industry (Pakistan Banking Sector, 2009). Initially the banking sector was only catering to the needs of big corporations and the government. However after the reforms the sector is now entertaining the middle class as well. The industry was passing through a transitional period from long established patterns and norms to the unknown land of threats and opportunities. The following are the few areas in the banking industry which have witnessed change over the years: Diversity within the commercial banking industry The following segments have experienced change in the few years: operations, market focus, advertising, and use of information technology. The banks are now concentrating more on developing and establishing distinctive image as compared to their competitors. The banks are doing this by introducing unique products in the market. Intensifying Competition The competition in the banking industry has deepened over the years. It has become fierce over the years. There are a few factors who have contributed to the increasing competition. Increased consumer awareness about the different products and services being offered by the banks has increased the competition. The banks in such a situation can no more enjoy saving the deposits of the consumers at lower rates. Such situations may actually force the banks to lend their money to customers which might have a high risk. Profit trends The ratios indicate a growth in the market. There have been a few dips in the market but overall the industry has seen an upward trend over the years. Soaring Loan Losses Troubled loans are regarded as a cancer for this industry. The quality loans are the ultimate goal for bankers in the 21st century. Mergers Mergers have taken their toll in this country. Over the years the country has witnessed many mergers for example Union Bank with Standard Chartered etc. The purpose is to hold on to as much market share as possible and to tame the increasing competition. however there are some setbacks as well for example, the economies of scale after a certain level of expansion no longer exist for the merger. Structure of the Banking Industry Pakistan being a developing country has a relatively low level of income. The required growth rate as a result is also low because of low savings. The standard of living and quality of life are terms still stranger to the people of this country. The foreign aids have been the bridging gap for us between our savings and investments. Nevertheless these aids have become the drowning forces for our country. IMFs main objective for Pakistan is to maintain stable exchange rates, multi-lateral credit system and international liquidity in order to recover from its worst economic crisis. (Pakistan Banking Sector, 2009) Structure of the Pakistani banking sector has substantially changed in the last decade,  particularly following the privatization of the state-owned banks. In 1990, the banking system was dominated by five commercial banks which were all state-owned. The 1990 amendments to the Banking Companies Ordinance launched the process of  financial sector reforms by allowing privatization of the state-owned banks. During the first round of reform, two of the state-owned banks, Muslim Commercial Bank  (MCB) and Allied Bank (ABL), were privatized between 1991 and 1993. The reforms  process was subsequently delayed for several years and resumed significantly only in the early 2000s. With the privatization of the third large bank, United Bank (UBL), in2002, the domination of the state-owned banks was ended. As of September 2003, the asset share of local private banks and public sector commercial banks was 47 percent and 41 percent respectively. Another large state-owned bank, Habib Bank (H BL), completed its privatization n process in February 2004. As a result of this privatization, the share of banking system assets held by public sector  commercial banks decreased to less than 25 percent. The largest bank in the country,  National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), with a market share of approximately 20 percent, remains state-owned and its privatization prospects are uncertain at this stage, although the government divested approximately 25 percent of its capital in 2001-03. A lot of endeavor has been put in the sector in recent years to promote Islamic banking in Pakistan. Numerous conventional banks have also opened up their branches to provide financial services to the consumers. Lately, the banking sector has diversified its product base and carried out a lot of innovation. They have included different customers like the agriculture sector, SMEs, mortgage financing and consumer financing in their customer list. Not only that this diversified lending  portfolio mitigates risks but it also raises the purchasing power of a large segment of  population that was completely shut out from credit markets. Pakistans auto industry has expanded its car production by a multiple of five times in the last four  years as auto finan